Two Gryffindors and A Slytherin: Serena Chronicles
by Pennethril the Tale Weaver
Summary: Tied into my other story "Two Gryffindors and a Slytherin" This will be a series of oneshots all relating back to Serena Black, although there is no need for you to have read TGaaS I would much appreciate it if you did
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of its copyrights.

This is the first in a series of one-shots based in the same universe as my story "Two Gryffindors and a Slytherin." It takes place in 1995 (5th book; OoTP) and it begins just before the Weasley's and Serena go to Grimmauld Place for the first time.

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"I can't believe I'm meeting my dad for the first time- that I can remember at least, and my biological dad, not the one I've lived with my whole life," Serena said, bouncing on Fred's bed in a fit of nervous energy.

"From what Ron's said, he's pretty cool once you get past the crazy inmate part of him," Fred said cheekily from across the room where he and George were prepping their things for the move to London. Serena had been staying at The Burrow for the past couple of weeks.

"Do you think he'll like me?" she asked in a moment of weakness.

"C'mon, Love, what's not to like?"

"And what do I call him? I call Moony Dad most of the time; do I call him dad too? And what if he hates me because I'm in Slytherin? And, oh my _Merlin_, what if-," Fred had suddenly crossed the room and taken her face in his hands; pressing a quick kiss to her lips to effectively quiet her worrying. He said,

"Serena. You're amazing. There's no way he could not be proud of how you've turned out."

"Even if I'm a Slytherin?" she asked skeptically.

"Even then," Fred said cheekily.

"Oy! Would you two love birds tear yourselves away from each other so that we can finish packing please?" George called from across the room, after lobbing a couple of wadded up t-shirts at the pair.

"Oh George, you're just jealous because you can't bring Lee with you," Serena said.

"Damn straight I am," George admitted, tossing a worn out shoe into his trunk.

"Its ok George," Serena was suddenly behind George, and talking seductively in his ear, "I'm sure Fred wouldn't mind if I kept you company too. After all, you're always talking about how people have been able to tell you two apart since Fred and I got together."

Fred was just barely keeping his laughter in, as he and Serena watched as George's ears slowly turned beet red. Finally, he couldn't take it anymore, and Fred started cackling, Serena joined in as George whirled around with an enraged expression. That expression didn't last long, and he joined them in laughter.

Much too soon for Serena's liking, they were all standing on a curb in what was possibly once a very nice neighborhood in London, but was now extremely run down. They stood shivering in an unseasonably cold rain across from where number 11 met number 13.

"All right, now everyone read this and pass it along. Whoever gets it last, pass it back to me," Mr. Weasley instructed as he passed a slip of paper to Ron. Once the paper had made its rounds, Mr. Weasley incinerated it, and told them all to focus on what it had said.

As they watched, a building sprouted up, pushing the ones on either side apart to make room. As soon as the building stopped inflating like a balloon, Mrs. Weasley began ushering them all towards it.

"Come now; hurry everyone, before the Muggles see!"

They all piled into the front hall of the semi-derelict building, and the very first thing Serena saw (besides an awful severed troll leg umbrella stand) was her dad. Not the biological one she had yet to meet, but the one that had raised her; Remus Lupin.

"Dad!" she exclaimed running towards him. However, the curtains on one wall snapped open to reveal a truly terrifying portrait of a woman who began screaming insulting epithets at them all. They all clasped their hands to their ears, as Remus and Mr. Weasley lunged forward to close the curtains. Once the curtains were closed, Serena looked around sheepishly and whispered,

"Sorry."

"That's ok, love, should have told you before you came in," her dad said, placing an arm around her shoulders and squeezing.

A door down the hall opened, and a head of black hair stuck out.

"What's with all of the commotion out here?"

Serena stepped away from her father's warm arms, and stared at the man before her.

"Hi. Dad," she said slowly and in awe.

"My goodness. Serena, darling," Sirius was equally wide-eyed, as they moved meeting in the middle of the corridor in their first father-daughter embrace.

"Why don't we move this into the kitchen," Remus said, ushering the Weasleys down the stairs. He turned to Sirius and Serena, "We'll see you later; you two catch up."

"Thanks. Come on, let's go up to the drawing room," Sirius said, showing Serena up the stairs.

Once in the drawing room, they settled on adjacent couches, and sat in awkward silence for a moment.

"So, I see you're wearing a Gryffindor scarf; does that mean you're in Gryffindor?" Sirius asked.

"Oh, no; this is Fred's. I'm not in Gryffindor," Serena said.

"Oh, then let me guess: you're in Ravenclaw, right?"

"Uh, no…"

"Really? You didn't really strike me as a Hufflepuff."

"Well, I'm not. I'm in Slytherin actually."

"Oh. You're a Slytherin?"

"Yeah… But, its not like… Houses aren't really that important anymore. I mean, I know when you were in school, you didn't really associate with anyone outside your House, but its not like that now," she tried to explain, but she could see he wasn't buying it.

"I can't believe you're in Slytherin," he said, standing, and pacing agitatedly.

"It's not that big a deal," Serena tried.

"Of course it's a big deal!" Sirius shouted. "You're in bloody Slytherin! You're nothing like I hoped you'd turn out!"

Serena stood up angrily; "Well excuse me, Dad!" she raised her voice in anger, "I _like_ being in Slytherin! I'm essentially the queen of the house!" The two were so caught up in their argument, that they didn't notice a quiet knock on the door.

"And you know what else? I like potions; I'm awesome at potions, _and_ my favorite professor is Professor _SNAPE_!" The rage that had been building inside Sirius at the knowledge that his only daughter was a Slytherin snake snapped at her admittance to actually _liking_ Snivellus as a professor. Without conscious thought on his part, his hand raised to smack the Slytherin out of her. Everything slowed down; he saw her eyes widen when she realized he was going to hit her, and then what felt like a steel band closed around his wrist stopping any movement on his part.

Time returned to normal then, and he looked to see Remus, looking particularly un-amused, holding his wrist.

"Serena, Professor Snape is here, and he said he would like to speak with you. He's in the kitchen; it's that door right off the front hall that we came out of when you first got here," he said calmly, quietly, as though he hadn't just stopped his best friend from striking his daughter. Serena nodded, looking teary, then turned and quickly made her way out of the room.

As soon as the door closed behind her, Remus threw Sirius's wrist away from him and said quietly;

"Don't _ever_ raise your hand to my daughter again."

Sirius had no idea what made him look Remus in the eye and say, "_Your_ daughter? Last I checked she was _my_ daughter."

Remus's gaze got even colder, if that was possible; "You and Naomi may have created her, but I'm the one that's raised her, even before you went to Azkaban. I am just as much, if not more of, her father than you are.

"The time has passed, Sirius, for you to continue to act like this. It is no longer acceptable, if it ever was, for you treat people like garbage based on superficial reasons like Hogwarts House. Grow up, Sirius."

He left then, leaving Sirius alone in the suddenly dark and cold drawing room.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of its copyrights.

The second in the series! Takes place in 1995 (5th book; OoTP) and follows directly after the first one-shot. BTW, in my mind, like Hogwarts, the "University of Britain" caters to the entirety of Britain as a Continuing Ed. Kind of establishment. The "University of Britain" is fictional and made up by me let me know how it goes guys!

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Serena made sure that she was composed before she entered the kitchen. The Weasley's were all gathered in the kitchen talking and laughing loudly. When she entered, it seemed that all of the Weasleys stopped talking and looked at her. She smiled if a little awkwardly at them, and then proceeded to make her way to a corner of the kitchen that appeared darker than normal.

"Good afternoon, Professor Snape," she said.

"Yes. I trust your summer is going well?" he asked, after ensuring that the Weasley's had returned to their boisterous activities.

His comment nearly broke her resolve, but she shrugged, not looking him in the eye, and admitted, "There've been some hiccups, but its ok."

"Good. There is something important I need to speak with you about. Is there somewhere a little… quieter we can go?"

"Uh, yeah. This way." She led him up the stairs and into the hallway, paused, looked around and chose a door at random.

It was a dusty room, and all the furniture was covered with sheets. Cabinets containing strange and most likely dangerous objects lined the walls, and the heavy curtains covering the windows buzzed and moved. Serena grimaced, but turned to face her professor, taking care not to touch anything but the floor.

"What did you need to talk to me about, Professor?"

Snape cleared his throat; "Every year, I am approached by a representative of the University of Britain's School of Potions to get names of students whom I think could do well with them. As you know, very few people choose to pursue a career of Potions Mastery, and the School of Potions is very small, but very good. Very rarely do I give him any names at all, but I told him that I think you would do well there. I've given him your name and a file containing all of the work you do with me."

"Oh, wow. Professor, that's amazing. But, I don't think I could afford to go to the University of Britain," she said. She sorely wanted to, but realistically knew that she and her father couldn't come up with that kind of money, and financial aid was hard to come by.

"If you would let me finish, Miss Black." Serena looked appropriately sheepish. "After he looked through the file, he came back to me saying that with your grades, you would do very well. When I brought up the subject of financial issues, he said they could offer you a fellowship. You could take classes and stay on the campus, but you would have to do work and research in the lab to help pay for it."

It was too good to be true. Sure, she was good at potions, and enjoyed them immensely, but really? A fellowship at the University of Britain's School of Potions? Inconceivable.

"Really?" she asked in shock.

"No. I made this whole thing up just to see that horribly crushed look on your face," Professor Snape said, rolling his eyes. This is when Serena squealed, and started jumping around happily.

"Oh my goodness! This is so cool! I can't wait!"

"You will have to come up with a project that you will work on during the year after hours that I will oversee, and that you will present to him and the board at the University in June," he added.

"That's fine. Awesome!" Serena squealed again. "Thank you so much!" She would have hugged her favorite professor if the look on his face didn't tell her that he was incredibly uncomfortable with her spontaneous display of extreme emotion.

She got herself under control with a deep breath.

"Thank you so much for letting me know, Professor. I have to go tell my dad," she said; she couldn't stop smiling.

She lead the way out of the room, unfortunately, they ran into Sirius in the corridor. The smile instantly dropped off of Serena's face, and she heard Professor Snape make a disgusted noise in his throat. Sirius's eyes immediately found Snape and his visage darkened. He opened his mouth to say something, but then he looked at Serena. His mouth snapped closed, and he quickly turned and left.

When he was out of sight, Serena turned to move toward the kitchen.

"I take it he doesn't like that you're a Slytherin," Snape remarked.

"No, it was kind of like your reaction when you found out that I of all people got into Slytherin, except you know, his was louder," Serena said. Snape was silent while they entered the kitchen, then he melted back into the shadows. Serena immediately sought out her father.

"Dad!" she exclaimed. He was standing with Arthur and Bill Weasley, talking.

"Sweetheart," he said, pulling her to his side and giving her a kiss on the temple, "How did your talk with Professor Snape go?"

"Fantastic; I was offered a fellowship at the University of Britain's School of Potions!"

"Oh wow! That's great, Serena! This _is_ fantastic: you love Potions. You'll have to tell me all of the details after dinner," he looked so happy for her. Fred came up to give her a hug, and they all sat down at the table to enjoy Mrs. Weasley's fabulous cooking. She took a look around the table. Fred to her right, and her dad on her left; the rest of the Weasleys, even Professor Snape and a couple of other people Serena had yet to make the acquaintance of integrated into the group nearly seamlessly.

Here eyes landed on the only empty chair at the table as the door to the kitchen creaked open. It was situated behind her, but she knew just who it was when everyone stopped talking to stare at the figure still lurking in the doorway. She turned slowly, and finally met the contrite eyes of her biological father.

He stared at her for a moment, before taking a step forward.

"Serena, I'm so sorry. Can you ever forgive my stupidity?" he asked. She knew he meant it by the slight shine in his eyes.

"Of course. Now, come on; sit down and have dinner with us," she said, turning back to the table. He smiled and hurried to his seat as conversations slowly resumed. Serena smiled; her family was together for the first time ever, and it was nice. Even if it was a little dysfunctional.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of its copyrights.

Finally! It's the next one-shot! :D My goodness it has been a long time since I updated a story. I hope you enjoy!

This takes place in 1981 the night that James and Lily Potter were murdered, and the following day. This is how Serena came to live with Remus.

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10/31/1981 8 p.m.

Remus was startled out of a doze by a pounding on his apartment door. He located his wand and approached the door cautiously as whomever it was started banging on the door again.

"Who is it?" Remus called out as a cursory check: if they were Death Eaters, they would have broken down the door by now.

"Moony! Remus, it's me; open up!" Knowing that voice and throwing caution to the wind- because, really what did he have left to lose?- he undid the wards and opened the door.

And there was Sirius standing there with Serena in one arm and a baby bag slung over the other shoulder. He looked immensely relieved when the door opened.

"Oh thank Merlin! I have to check on something, but I can't bring Serena, and I can't leave her alone. Can you watch her for a while?" he said very quickly.

"So you trust me enough to watch your daughter, but not enough to believe that I wouldn't turn on any of my friends and betray them to the Dark side?" Remus can't help but ask sarcastically.

Sirius closed his eyes looking pained; "Remus, please. We will talk later, I promise, but I really need to go." He practically tossed Serena into Remus' arms, dropped the bag at his feet and Disapparated before Remus could get another word in.

"Well," he sighed, looking down at the little head of black hair resting on his shoulder, "let's get you to bed. I guess I'll find out what that was all about tomorrow…"

Grabbing the bag and quietly closing the door with his foot, he crossed the living space and into his sparsely furnished bedroom. He slid his bed closer to the wall and bunched at blanket at the crease. He gently laid Serena down getting only token unhappy sounds while he fished her blankie and bear out of the bag. Propping himself up on the edge of the bed, he prepared himself for a very long night.

11/1/1981 7 a.m.

Remus was awoken by a combination of things; there was a weight in his lap that was babbling softly and playing with what was probably his wand judging from the lights flashing through his eyelids, and there was a tapping on the window next to his head. He opened his eyes with a deep, relaxed breath and found that Serena had indeed gotten a hold on his wand, had changed the colors of various things around the room, and caused other things to entertain her by flying about the room around her.

"Ok, sweetheart, give Uncle Moony his wand back," he said more to fill the silence because Serena was not yet at an age where she understood everything that was said to her. She released the wand with little fuss, and snuggled happily into his arms when he stood to answer the tapping at the window. It was the owl that delivered the Daily Prophet.

He let it in and it perched itself atop his dresser as he dug around in the bedside table for its payment. He didn't even bother to look at the paper after the awkward one handed exchange for it, and he left it sitting on the dresser.

Figuring it would be best to feed Serena while she was still in her pajamas as opposed to changing her into clothes that were bound to get messy, he crossed into the kitchen and transfigured one of his two dining chairs into a highchair. Once he finished feeding her, getting her changed and setting her up in the living room with the toys Sirius had packed, Remus set about starting his own day and wondering when Sirius planned on coming back to explain things. He was just about to sit down on the floor near Serena, who was doing an exceptional job of entertaining herself, when he remembered the paper he left on the dresser. He went and grabbed it, then settled on the floor in the living room.

Remus played with Serena for a little while, and then turned his attention to the forgotten newspaper. Upon reading the headline, his mouth dropped open in shock. In big bold print it said "Dark Lord Defeated," and in slightly smaller print it added, "James and Lily Potter Dead."

"No. What? No, no, no," Remus said to himself, frantically reading the article, and then flipping to the rest of it when he was finished with the front page.

In the end, the paper told him that the Dark Lord found the Potters' hiding place, killed James and Lily and attempted to kill Harry but failed somehow and ended up destroying himself. A second article detailed how Sirius had apparently blown up a street full of Muggles, as well as long-time friend Peter Pettigrew, early this morning, and had been arrested, laughing the entire time.

Taking deep breaths, he forced himself to calm down. Ok. James and Lily were- oh, Merlin why? – dead. He didn't know where Harry was. Sirius had killed Peter and was on his way to Azkaban. With Sirius arrested, that meant that Serena was without a home. There was no doubt in his mind that he would fight tooth and nail to keep her, however, he needed help. He needed an explanation. He needed Dumbledore.

That decided, he packed Serena's bag with toys, juice, crackers, her bear and blanket, grabbed his coat and shoes, and wrestled a wriggly Serena into her own jacket. He paused to determine the best way to get to Hogwarts with a two year old, and finally settled on the short walk to the Leaky Cauldron to take the Floo. (After this, he might look into actually hooking his own fireplace to the network…)

He realized that the Leaky Cauldron was probably a bad idea the moment he stepped foot inside. Not only was he bombarded by the sound, he was bombarded also by the memories of he and his friends hanging out in this very bar, and the realization that that would never happen again. Everyone inside was loud, drunk and cheerful, but thankfully they were too much so to notice the nondescript man stop in the doorway to collect himself and then hurry to the fireplace. Tom saw him, but simply nodded in his direction and continued to serve his customers.

He paused briefly at the fireplace, and considered whether or not it would be rude for him to Floo directly into the Headmaster's office, but then dismissed the thought because, dammit, he shouldn't have had to find out through the bloody Daily Prophet about his best friends' deaths, betrayals and incarcerations. He forced himself to toss the powder in before he could talk himself out of it; stating the destination and stepping inside. He belatedly remembered to pull Serena's coat collar up over her mouth and nose to keep out soot. In the end, he needn't have worried about being rude and interrupting anything, because the headmaster's office was empty.

Remus sighed heavily in frustration, hoping that for once that creepy omniscience Dumbledore seemed to have would make him show up soon. Deciding he might as well make himself and Serena comfortable, he set her down, removed their jackets, and settled on the floor next to her.

"Oh man..." he sighed, "How'd we ever get into this mess, huh?"

Serena looked up at him, smiling a big, toothy, two-year-old grin. Remus couldn't help but to smile at her in response.

"I don't know what I'm going to do if they take you away from me. Maybe Dumbledore can pull some strings," he mused while pulling out something for Serena to play with that didn't include his wand, which she was now making a concerted effort to take.

Luckily, it wasn't even twenty minutes before Dumbledore entered his office. He didn't even seem at all surprised to see Remus sitting on the floor in front of his desk with Serena terrorizing a few of his more sentient knick-knacks.

"Ah, Remus my boy, you should have sent a message. Have you been waiting long?" Dumbledore asked as he moved to take a seat behind his desk.

"No. I didn't want to draw attention to myself if I sent you a message and you were at the Ministry," Remus replied, standing and rescuing the knick-knacks by scooping Serena up and taking a seat in the chair across from Dumbledore.

"Ah, yes. I have been at the Ministry for quite some time now. You're lucky you caught me, I was just popping in to take care of a few discreet messages and freshen up a little."

"Yeah, speaking of which, would you care to tell me why I had to find out what a disaster last night and this morning were from a newspaper? I mean, it would have been nice to know from, you know, a friendly mouth what had happened," Remus said testily.

Dumbledore for his part didn't seem to hear the tone in which he was spoken to; "Well, like you said, I didn't want to bring unwanted attention onto you. It seems that both you and Serena are being conveniently left out of the investigations. In fact, it is almost as if you were _forgotten_."

There was an initial surge of anger that they could have forgotten Serena, but then Dumbledore's words started to click.

"So, what are they going to do with Serena?" he asked instead.

"Well like I said, she- and you- have seemed to slip the Ministry's minds. There are no plans on where Serena is going to be sent to live, so I have taken it upon myself to make sure she goes to a good home. And, since Sirius' last will and testament names you as Serena's guardian after James and Lily- their souls rest in peace-, I took the liberty of drawing up the adoption papers.

"I need not remind you that once these are authorized it is a non-negotiable contract and there is nothing anyone can do about the placement until Serena herself is capable of speaking against it. And, luckily, I find myself with the standing to authorize such things."

"You-? Wait, really? Serena can stay with me?" Remus asked, dumbfounded.

"Yes. Yes indeed. Now all we have to do is sign it, and file it like it was meant to be, and no one will be able to take her from you," Dumbledore said, pulling out a packet of papers.

"Why?" Remus found himself asking.

"Why because, dear boy, I don't think she would have thanked any of us for sending her to the Malfoys, the Tonkses have enough on their plates what with young Nymphadora, and I wouldn't trust the fate of any child to the Lestranges. Now, I need you to initial here, and sign here. Quickly now, before someone decides to drop by and interrupt us."

Remus quickly read through the form. It looked authentic and seemed fool-proof and unbreakable- his signature had to be in blood. There was a copy of Serena's birth certificate and Sirius' will attached as well. He flipped back to the first page and took the black quill Dumbledore held out to him. He initialed and signed his name carefully, and the magical quill wrote not in ink, but in blood.

"There. All set," Dumbledore said, straightening the papers and folding them into his robes. "I'll take care of these when I return to the Ministry." The mood turned decidedly somber.

"I am truly sorry, Remus."

"They're really-?"

"Yes, I'm afraid so. Sirius was their Secret Keeper; he is the only one that could have told Voldemort where they were hiding." Dumbledore said sadly.

"But why go after Peter? And he seemed so… I don't know. Last night, when he dropped off Serena, I had no idea that he was going to…." Remus couldn't continue, he was so choked up.

"And, what about Harry? Couldn't you do the same for him as you did for Serena?"

"Harry has already been moved to his new home. He will safe there, with Lily's sister." Remus started at that news.

"Lily's sister? Petunia? Professor, they hated each other. Petunia absolutely despises magic, she'll despise Harry too!"

"I'm sure Petunia will be able to overcome her dislike for a child. And there really is no safer place for him right now; there are certain blood-tied wards that I have already set up around their house that will keep Harry safe right up until he comes of age. I'm sorry Remus. This is for the best."

Remus couldn't fight him on this, and he knew it. He was lucky that he had even been able to get custody of Serena- even more lucky that whoever that woman was, Umbridge or something, who was trying to lobby for the restriction of the right of those classified as 'half-breeds' to have children had been unsuccessful so far. Hopefully, if her lobby was successful in the future, it wouldn't matter since he already had custody of Serena and they would be grandfathered in. He silently started gathering his and Serena's things.

"Oh, and one more thing Remus: I have sent a couple of House Elves over to Sirius' apartment to gather Serena's things. They should be waiting for you when you get home," Dumbledore added before Remus could Floo away.

"Thank you, sir," Remus said. He Flooed to the Leaky Cauldron, which was thankfully much quieter than it had been on their way to Hogwarts. When they arrived home, there were indeed boxes of Serena's things sitting in his living room. Some things had been extracted like the crib, and the highchair and the toy box, but there were still boxes and boxes of clothes and toys and other things. The apartment now looked and felt very small and cramped.

"Alright, looks like I'm going to have to make some major life before you're old enough to want your own room," Remus said to Serena as she toddled over to one of the boxes and started pulling out toys, brandishing a few of them at him, tossing the rest about, and demanding in baby-babble that he join her. "Yeah... a two room apartment is not going to cut it for long..."


End file.
